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0.4 (1.82%)
0.35 (1.59%) | Chairman's Speech (Unitech) | Year : Mar '12 |
Dear Shareholders, The optimism that had developed on the macro-economic and the real estate industry front in the beginning of 2011- 12, unfortunately, withered away as the year progressed. GDP growth in India reduced to 6.3% in 2011-12. This is the lowest growth rate recorded in the last 10 years. In this environment, construction industry growth in India reduced to 5.3% in 2011-12. Clearly, it was a dif cult year for the real estate sector in India. The industry was most affected by the high cost of capital and a virtual freeze in availability of finance. The regulatory environment affected commercial bank finance to the real estate sector and the global economic uncertainties, especially the crisis in Europe, resulted in a drying up of foreign capital flows into India. You would recollect that in 2009, your Company reoriented its strategy with a focus on faster monetisation of the large low cost land reserves that it created in the preceding years. It had entered the ''affordable housing'' segment and launched a slew of projects, which were well accepted by the market. From around thirty projects under execution in 2008-09, your Company now has nearly 100 projects at various stages of execution. The Company has also simultaneously initiated a number of measures to enhance its execution capabilities to ensure quality and timely completion of these projects. We had started making good progress in this endeavour till the dramatic squeeze in funding options hit the real estate sector since the beginning of 2011-12. The lack of refinancing options disturbed the balance that the Company was maintaining between increases in construction expenditure on one side and reduction of debt on the other. Although this development adversely affected the construction activity, on a positive note the Company reduced its debt further during 2011-12. Today, your Company has one of the lowest net debt to equity ratio in the real estate sector of 0.45. Construction activity has been picking up gradually since beginning of calendar year (CY) 2012 and we expect to soon expand to the desired levels of construction. I am firmly of the view that the fundamentals driving demand for real estate in India remain intact and the Indian real estate consumer continues to repose faith in our products. It is also note worthy that in adverse conditions, indications from the residential property price index calculated by the National Housing Board suggests that property prices have remained stable during 2011-12, if not marginally increased, for most cities and towns in India. Unitech launched several projects during the year totalling an area of 7.81 million sqft. and sold a total of 7.19 million sqft., which were evenly spread out over the four quarters. Clearly, the strategy of developing a wide range of product on our land bank with a focus on affordable housing is continuing to succeed in the market. During 2011-12, we stepped up efforts to further improve the existing systems and processes. We have also engaged the services of a global consultant to evaluate and suggest improvements in certain specific areas such as project management and material procurement. SAP implementation has been extended to a wider number of projects. Also, to promote and develop excellence in construction, the Company is implementing model best practices in its own construction subsidiary – Unitech Infra. This will set benchmarks for the other vendors to follow. Going forward, it is also important for me to point out that the industry is increasingly coming under the ambit of several regulatory developments. Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 and Draft Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2011 are two such developments. While these are well intentioned, they may run the risk of stiffing the growth of the real estate sector if proper balance is not maintained between the interests of various stakeholders. I welcome any regulation that promotes healthy development of the real estate sector in India. Unitech continues to conduct its business in a way that creates social, environmental and economic benefits to the communities in which it operates and the Company has always contributed towards the betterment of the society through various welfare initiatives including provision of education, skill development and healthcare for the underprivileged section of the society through ''Saankalp'' - the CSR group of Unitech. These activities continued unabated. I urge you to read the chapter on Management Discussion and Analysis, which provides more detailed review of our businesses and CSR activities. At this juncture I would like to thank all our stakeholders – our people, our vendors and subcontractors, our partners, our shareholders, our creditors and our customers. All of you have always believed in and stayed committed to our business and its products and services. The year 2012-13 will be another year that will throw up new challenges and I am sure we are geared to take them on and grow further as an enterprise. I urge you to continue to repose faith in Unitech and Unitech will continue to deliver value. Regards, Ramesh Chandra Chairman |
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| Source : Dion Global Solutions Limited | |
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